Various different configurations of rotary brush sweepers are known in the art, and these lightweight devices are a low cost alternative to vacuum cleaners. Such sweepers typically include a housing, one or more power-driven rotary brushes that brush the carpet or other floor surface in order to lift dust, dirt particles, and other soiling material from the floor, and rollers, or glide elements that roll or glide along the floor so as to support the sweeper.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,152,267 describes a portable floor sweeper having motorised rotary brushes mounted around all four sides of the sweeper head. Together with an elongate handle mounted by a universal joint this allows the sweeper to provide cleaning action in any direction in which it is moved. The sweeper performs satisfactorily for picking up dust, dirt and like small particles, however the very low profile sweeper head means that performance for sweeping up larger pieces is compromised. It is an object of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate the above disadvantages or more generally to provide an improved handheld floor sweeper.